He also claimed ad contracts were routinely handed out to reward ad agencies that did election work for the Liberals."It was politically driven," he said, explaining that he was constantly being told to help out the party's friends such as ad executive Jacques Corriveau.Accused of exploiting a personal relationship with former prime minister Jean Chretien, Corriveau has denied the two were close. But in his testimony, Guite said that in 1994, then-public works minister David Dingwall told him a different story."If you ever meet someone in bed between Jean Chretien and his wife, it'll be Corriveau," recalling Dingwall's remarks. "His comment was, you'll look after him."

Also

Guite had already left the civil service by then, and was lobbying the government on behalf of the Toronto-based advertising agency Vickers and Benson Ltd.

Hoping to secure the future of his firm's ad contracts with Ottawa, Guite said he had lunch with his former boss, Public Works Minister Alfonso Gagliano.

"He said he'd look after it," Guite told the commission.

A week later, Guite says he got a call from Gagliano's chief of staff, Pierre Tremblay.

"The minister had spoken with both ministers and the volume of business would be maintained," Guite testified. He claimed he was assured Vicker's contracts with two federal departments -- Industry under John Manley and Finance under Paul Martin -- were safe.

Seems to me like the Liberals are going to have a harder time denying that Martin is simply clueless and wasn't at least peripherally involved in it. Though I really don't see how it is all that much better for Martin to have not been involved and have been Finance Minister and still know nothing at all about what was going on, essentially in my mind the choices are; He was corrupt, He was incompetent, or He was Willfully Ignorant, much like Grant Devine was with his Tory government in the 80s of which several members of his caucus later ended up in jail and yet Devine somehow missed that half his cabinet was corrupt and stealing money including his Deputy Premier Eric Berntson